Understanding Penguins
by bluebarnowl
Summary: There's a girl in New York who is volunteering at the Central Park zoo. She is just an ordinary girl, but just one small glitch. SHE CAN TALK TO ANIMALS! And the penguins become aware of this, and a certain "spy" comes back to help the girl escape the comeuppance of the penguins. (It's the boy who claimed the penguins were going to give him a wedgies, I forgot his name! Ronald?)


It all started the day I visited the Central Park Zoo. My name is Artemis, Artemis Bell. I wore my favorite ocean blue T-Shirt with jean capris and white sneakers. My waist long blond hair was in a tight fishtail braid and the white stripe on my left side was in it's own little fishtail braid (my signature hairstyle). My sapphire blue eyes skimmed the layout of the Zoo, my Caucasian skin glimmered in the beautiful twilight sky. I actually wasn't visiting, I was volunteering. I needed the community service hours for my college credit. I'm 15 years old, even though I'm tall enough to be an 18 year old. Yeah I know, why are you volunteering at such an early age? Well, I want to get my college hours out of the way so I can get into a good school. Even though my filthy rich, billionaire parents could pay for my college tuition, I like to do things for my self.

Anyway, I got up early and showed up at the front gates at 7:30am. The gates were opened earlier than usual, so I just let myself in. I walked up to the front office and got my working supplies from the head zookeeper, Alice. She gave me a bucket of fresh sardines and led me to the penguin exhibit. "Okay, Artemis, this week you'll be working at the penguin habitat." She said in a deadpanned tone. We got to the habitat to find no penguins in it. "Umm, where are the penguins exactly?" I asked. "They always disappear during the night, but don't worry they always come back." She sighed. "Alright, you feed them at 8:00am and at 12:30pm. And during that time, you interact with the guest and answer questions. I'll be in my office if you need me. And let me know if you see anything weird." She said, "What do you mean by weird?" I asked, "You'll know it when you see it." She said before sleepily walking back to the main office. I set down the fish bucket and decided to use a bathroom break before the zoo opened.

After using the bathroom, I went back to my post and saw the penguins had come back, just like Alice said. The weird thing was that they looked like they were doing Tai Quoin Do (I have no idea how to spell it). "That's odd," I said to myself. Though it may have been a little too loud, because then all four penguins turned to see me. (Before I go any further with my story, you should know that I was born with the ability to be able to talk to animals, I'm not insane! It's true!) They looked at me in surprise. The penguin with the flathead top, turned to the tallest of the rookery(group of penguins), "Kowalski, is she supposed to be here?" he said, in a commando tone. Then the one called Kowalski pulled out a clipboard, "Apparently, she is the new zoo volunteer, she'll be here for the next three weeks." He said with the plain voice of a scientist.

"Well let's keep an eye on her." He said, then they all slid on their bellies to the center of their habitat and stood in a straight line. But the smallest one, just looked at me with it's adorable eyes. It seemed to be begging me for the fish, I looked at my watch: 8:00am. "Well, I guess it's feeding time." I grabbed the bucket and was about to fling the fish out to them, when my phone rang. I remembered I set an extra alarm so I wouldn't forget my job. The time read 7:45am. I looked at my watch and the hands were stuck in the 8:00am position, the little handle was pulled out. "That's weird, my watch is stuck on the wrong time." I set my watch back to the right time and looked back at the penguins. "Sorry boys, I almost fed you too early. Your all big enough." I giggled. "Did she just call us fat?" said the smaller one with a British accent.

I immediately regretted my words. "Omigosh! I didn't mean it! Your not fat!" I said. Then we stood in silence for about 5 whole minutes. "Does she understand us?" The British accented penguin asked. "Highly unlikely, Private," Said Kowalski. "Actually _Kowalski_," I stretched his name out, "I was born with the ability to talk to animals." They stared at me with wide eyes. Then Private leaned in towards the penguin with the flathead, "Skippah, I'm frightened," He whimpered. Then the Zoo clock tower chimed 8:00am, "Okay boys, feeding time." I said and picked up the bucket. I tossed the fish in and the one with a scar over the left side of his beak was about to eat them when Kowalski intervened. "Careful, Rico! These could be poisoned." He said. "Oh, come on! It's salmon!" I shouted. Rico made something like a growling noises towards me.

Thankfully, some of the guests who were coming early came over to the penguin exhibit first. Rico was about to charged towards me from their island, but then Skipper intervened, "Not yet, Rico. There's too many witnesses, we don't want any snitches." He said, eyeing me suspiciously. I decided to back-off a little. Until I bumped into someone. He had brown hair, brown eyes and was wearing a green hoodie and jeans. "Oh, um, I'm sorry." He said shyly. I recognized him, "Hey aren't you Ronald? From homeroom?" I asked. He looked at me weirdly, "How do you know my name?" He asked. "I remember you from last year, you were freaking out saying that penguins were trying to give you wedgies." I giggled.

"Yes, that was me," He rubbed the back of his head and looked down at his feet. "And you must be Artemis Bell, I remember you from homeroom too," He smiled. "Uhh, I never told anyone my last name," I said. "Oh, I, uh," He stuttered before running away to the other end of the zoo. I just stood there for a moment, then shrugged it off. I walked around the penguin habitat, talking to some of the visitors and giving information on the penguins. The penguins themselves were doing the same thing every hour or so. Smiling and waving, and acting as cute as buttons. It's like they have no idea how to act like real penguins. They would occasionally do tricks and flips in the water, but that's about it.

After the zoo clock chimed 12:00pm, the guests went to the zoo café for lunch, while I stayed behind and fed the penguins. After I tossed in the fish, the penguins ate quickly and got into a fighting position. "Alright men, the coast is clear." Skipper said, staring at me. But as they were jumping up towards me, I felt someone grab me from behind. I turned my head to see Ronald pulling me away from the penguins. "It's the spy!" Skipper shouted. "She must be a spy as well, Skipper." Said Kowalski. Ronald pulled me towards the café where all of the other guests were eating. "Dude! What are you doing?" I asked him. "You need to stay away from those penguins!" He whispered.

"What?" I asked out of complete confusion. "Those penguins are extremely dangerous!" He said. We sat down in the middle of the café tables, while everyone else ate their lunches and completely ignored us. "I know you're terrified of penguins-" I started out before he interrupted me. "I'm only scared of those penguins! Okay, last year, I saw them karate chop a pretzel cart guy, and they were all ninja commando style! Then they were coming after me because I witnessed everything and I was trying to tell the teacher!" He explained. Normally, any other person off the street would say he was insane, but since I can talk to animals, I tend not to judge. Much.

"Well, I overheard them talking about how there were too many witnesses." "Well, obviously-" He froze and stared at me, "Did you just say that you _overheard _them?" He asked. "Well...okay, since we're both crazy, I'll let you in on my secret," I said. He sat back and waited for me to say something, "I was born with the ability to talk to animals," I said. I waited for a whole moment to hear what he had to say. "Well, okay," He said. "So, you're not going to laugh at me?" I asked. "Nope, since my run-in with those penguins, I've been rethinking everything about the universe." He said. "Oh, okay," I said and slumped back in my chair. Then the clock chimed 12:45pm. "My break is over," I said, "I need to get back to work, I'll be working at the penguin exhibit the entire week." I told him.

"Hey," He said in a squeaky voice before clearing his throat and making his voice sound all macho, "Hey, maybe I can come with you, so I can watch your back." "Okay," I said. We both got up, and slowly walked back to the penguin habitat.

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